Chance form the Democratic Party. And as the protests continue and another woman speaks out, new reporting that fox news is finally turning on bill oreilly. Caution. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Everything is happening tonight, it seems. An incredibly busy night of news. The polls are now closed in the special election that is the first real test case to see how powerful the resistance to donald trump can be. We will be going to georgia and bringing you the results as we get them. But first tonight the white house is attempting to contain a budding conflict of interest controversy of the first order. At first glance, it made no sense. Why would President Trump place a phone call to turkish president recep erdogan to congratulate erdogan for winning a heavily disputed referendum that will greatly expand his power while, many experts say, effectively putting an end to democracy in turkey . America, after all, likes to think of itself as a defender of democracy, at least in word if not always in deed. And even before the referendum, erdogan had looked increasingly like an ought oh craft. His government und a seeming perpetual state of emergency, his record of throwing dissiden and journalists in jail, leaving much of the world aghast. The u. S. State department sure seemed concerned, releasing a statement noting election irregularities and urging the government of turkey to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all citizens while insisting that commitment to the rule of law and a diverse and free media remains essential. House Foreign AffairsCommittee Chairman edward royce cast the referendum as a sign of turkeys creeping authoritarianism, saying that all who value democracy this is a republican pluralism and turkeys key role in the region should be concerned about the elimination of important checks and balances in the turkish system. Yet President Trump, the leader of the free world as we like to say, went out of his way to call erdogan, to pat him on the back for consolidating power in a completely unnecessary and unforced departure from American Foreign policy and american values. Not a wink and a nod for an ought craft we were allied with, but a full, hearty attaboy. It looks absolutely bewildering until you hear this. I have a little conflict of interest because i have a major, major building in istanbul. And its a tremendously successful job. Its called trump towers, two towers instead of one. Not the usual one. Its two. That was trump in december 2015 in a breitbart interview with none other than steve bannon, explicitly stating he has a conflict of interest in turkey. Straight from the horses mouth. Throughout the campaign and into the presidency, weve talked in hypothetical terms about the danger posed by having a president who refuses to separate himself from his sprawling Worldwide Business interests. We no longer need to talk in terms of hypotheticals. This is what that looks like. It looks like the president proppi up an autocrat antithetical to american values, a man who in that same 2015 interview trump suggested was allied with isis terrorists. So we have a very complex set of circumstances and if you look at turkey, turkey looks like theyre on the side of isis more or less based on the oil. Erdogan himself presided over the opening ceremonies for the trump towers in istanbul in 2012 and met with trump at the time. Ivanka trump tweeting afterward, quote, thank you, Prime Minister erdogan, for joining us yesterday to celebrate the launch of hashtag trump towers istanbul. Last year, after the president proposed banning muslims from the United States, erdogan declared that trump has no tolerance for muslims in america, and he called the istanbul towers to lose trumps name, which would be a blow of course to the trump organization. In the wake of yesterdays call, thats probably no longer so much of a concern. The Trump Administration defended the call today, insisting the bigger point and priority of trumps call was to talk about shared interests with a longstanding nato ally. Yet trump has given us no reason to dismiss fears that he is using the full force and power of the presidency to enrich himself and his family. The fears that arise when a president refuses to divest himself from his businesses, refuses to release his tax returns so we can even know what it is he owns, and how it might affect how he wields power. In the wake of yesterdays call, every citizen now has to ask, did the president of the United States go out of his way to lend our nations imprim ate ur to a power grab by a rising authoritarian who he said was aligned with isis because the president wanted to protect his own bottom line . Joining me now, richard painter, chief white house ethics lawyer under george w. Bush and clu columnist rick wilson. Trump was very forthcoming about this in that interview. He said i have a conflict of interest. It sure looks le one. Ll, it certainly is. He stands to make a lot of money over there in turkey and elsewhere around the world. And he doesnt care if that means that hes going to be accommodating a tow totalitarian government. It actually might be very pleasing to him and steve bannon and some of the people who work for President Trump. But the bottom line is hes focused on increasing his bottom line. Hes not focusing on the american interests in turkey or anywhere else, and this is a very dangerous situation because we see dictators rising not just in turkey but the philippines and in many other countries, and all the president of the United States cares about is his own business interests and his own conflicts of interest, enriching his family. We see all the trademarks coming in from china not just for the president but for ivanka, and that seems to be all they care about. And im wondering where are we accommodating and helping serve the interests of the American People . Thats not happening, and this is a very dangerous world, and im very worried about how this administration is dealing with it. Rick, you know, when i saw the news last night about this phone call, it was originally reported in turkey first of course. I thought to myself, wow, that is a really strange decision. I mean theres a lot of ways you can play this. If he had been asked about it and said, oh, i like erdogan, but this was an affirmative decision to do something that i think left all of our allies scratching their heads, particularly across europe. This was widely condemned. This referendum. Then you go back and listen to the interview and look at the tweet and think to yourself, that seethis is deeply unnervin. This is what it looks like. I think there are two equally disturbing possibilities here. The first is hes doing this to protect his fiscal interest, his financial interest in turkey. The second is that hes a fan boy for authoritarians. Right. Theact of the matter this referendum rolled back the basic infrastructures of democracy in turkey quite a long way, making erdogan into one of the most powerful political leaders in the world in terms of the executive power hes taken by this referendum. It is a really touchy situation, i think, in terms of turkey being a participating matter in nato and in the european community, et cetera, because it has basically become now hes basically become a Central Asian strongman figure. I think maybe trump does love that a little bit, but i also think that he never takes his eye off the family business. And trump wants to monetize the oval office, and guarantee you the first thing he thought of was not has turkey lost most of his fundamental democratic freedoms, but how am i going to profit or lose on this thing . Richard, obviously we dont have the tax returns. The president continues to stonewall on that front, but we dont even know what the level of financial enrichment or exposure is here in this case, right . There could be a flow of income coming actively from that franchise, from the way that deal is structured in turkey, and we just dont know. Well, we know this a lot. We dont know exactly how much. We dont know all the details, but we know he has substantial financial interests in turkey, in the philippines, and many other countries. And this is a dangerous situation. This is what happened in the 1930s when we had the rise of dictators in europe, and Many AmericanBusiness People had substantial financial interests in germany and other countries. But at least president roosevelt didnt. And this is a very bad situation when a president refuses to divest of his international holdings. Hes beholden to foreign dictators, foreign oligarchs, and were going to have american soldiers could easily get trapped into situations abroad simply because he wants to defend his financial interests. We need the president to divest himself of these conflicts of interest now and also to abide by the constitution because it is unconstitutional for him to receive any benefits and payments from foreign governments, and that could be going on right now in turkey and elsewhere. We know it is with respect to the bank of china. I mean this is a very bad situation right now. Rick, i wonder if theres a trip wire here with republicans in the house. I thought it was interesting the Foreign Services sorry, Foreign AffairsCommittee Chairman basically, you know, had the position that i think most people had on this referendum. If youre going to see pushback on republicans from this. Chris, donald trump could receive briefcases full of bloodsoaked cash at the white house from foreign dictators, and the House Republicans right now will go, meh, not a big deal. They do not they absolutely divorced themselves from holding him to aount for anything. Richard painter and rick wilson, thanks to you both. Appreciate it. We are now 89 days into this administration. You can barely catalog the conflicts of interest at play as mr. Painter alluded to. In fact, you cant actually do it because on this tax day, the president still refuses to release his tax returns. But the conflicts are just about everywhere you look. Today the president signed an executive order to clamp down on guest worker visas specifically targeting the p 1 B Visa Program while exempting the h 2 b visa that trump uses to staff his maralago resort. Also today the Associated Press reported that on the very day ivanka trump had dinner with the president of china earlier this month, ivanka trumps company won provisional approval from the Chinese Government for three new trademarks. Then theres the lawsuit against the president for violating the constitutions emoluments clause barring u. S. Office holders from accepting gifts from foreign powers. The suit filed in january focused on what goes on at Trumps Hotels and restaurants, and today the suit got two new plaintiffs including the Organization Led by my next guest, the cofounder and codirector of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers united. Tell me the theory of the case. Why are you suing the president . So the theory of the case is that the president has violated, as you said, the emoluments clause, which says that the president cannot accept gifts of any kind or, in this case, business even from foreign dignitaries, from Prime Ministers, president s, first ladies. And in this case President Trump owns hotels and restaurants, many of them all over america. And there is a conflict of interest because foreign dignitaries, ambassadors, Prime Ministers, president s will fl like they should or, you know, feel compeed to stay at or consume at the restaurants in these hotels in order to curry favor with the president , in order to move policy, in order to get trade deals. Right. And that is a direct harm to our members. We represent 25,000 workers, over 200 Restaurant Owners, and several thousand consumers who will lose business, especially the Restaurant Owners and workers who will lose business as they have to compete now with the president of the United States. I see. So a lot of people have said theres a standing problem here, right . Which is that who has standing to sue the president for the violation, and who can show a tangible harm . What youre saying your organization represents owners and workers at restaurants that are nonTrump Restaurants, are tangibly going to be harmed by an inflow of foreign dollars into trumpowned properties in order to curry favor with the president. Thats right. Weve got a number of employers in new york, in washington, d. C. , in chicago, in florida who receive foreign dig netaries as customers all the time. And now theyre going to have to compete with the president of the United States when these foreign dignitaries really feel like they really should be eating at Trump Restaurants and trump hotels instead of the restaurants theyve been eating at, which belong tot members of our organization. So they will lose income. The workers in these restaurants will lose tips, will lose income themselves. There is direct harm as a result to our members as a result of this incredible conflict of interest and violation of the constitution. Look, its hard enough in our industry. Workers receive the lowest wages in our industry of almost any industry. Tipped workers get a minimum wage of 2. 13 an hour. They rely on these tips and now theyre having to compete with the president of the United States and having to lose business in terms of foreign dignitaries to trump hotels and restaurants. Its just ouageous. Ts a very clearcut articulation of harm there. Well see what the courts make of it. Ive heard a lot of legal observers who think you guys have a good case. We think so to. Still to come tom perez and Bernie Sanders join men exclusively for the first time together to talk about their red state roadshow, selling the Democratic Party back to their own base. Meanwhile, we are awaiting the results of the Georgia Special election. Polls have closed there, and democrats are hoping to shock the world by stealing a congressional seat. Can they pull it off . Well talk about that after this twominute break. Allergies with nasal congestion . Find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. [ upbeat music ] strut past that aisle for the allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes and contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear, with claritind. Theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation if my plans change. Visit booking. Com. Booking. Yeah. A little more than an hour ago, polls closed in the most talked about house race in a long, long time. A democrat has more than a fighting chance of winning a seat that hasnt gone blue since jimmy carter was in the white house. 30yearold jon ossoff is leading in the most recent polls where hes been consistently in the low to mid40s, which is more than 20 points ahead of the closest republican but short of the 50 ossoff needs to win this thing outright and avoid a Runoff Election in june. Meanwhile, keeping ossoff below the 50 threshold wasnt the only challenge facing the republican field today. They also needed to figure out a way to disstance themselves from donald trump, particularly in a very affluent, well educated district. As the New York Times pointed out, its the best educated House District held by a republican in the country, and its Republican Voters in this kind of district who seemed to be the most turned off by trump. For instance, in 2012, mitt romney carried the district by 23 percentage points. Five months ago, trump barely squeaked by. If you thought that trump would stay away from this race, keep his name out of it, you would of course be wrong. In the last three days, trump has tweeted about the race six times. Then theres this robocall. Hello. This is president donaltrump. Liberal democrats from outside of georgia are spending millions and millions of dollars trying to take your republican congressional seat away from you. Dont let them do it. Tomorrow there is a special election for congress in georgia. Only you can stop the super liberal democrats and Nancy Pelosis group and, in particular, jon ossoff. Joining me now, michelle goldbe goldberg. Michelle, we talked to you last night. Today was election day. What did you see . You know, its really hard to extrapolate from, you know, a number of polling places that you can hit during the day. But turnout is definitely really high. I went to one polling place in particular where people were waiting in line for an hour, and people told me that the turnout seemed to be at that polling place even higher than it had been for the president ial election. I dont think thats true across the board, but at this point, nobody knows. Theres no model for an election like this. So i think that theyre probably on track when i spoke to the Ossoff Campaign to get about a third of the total vote that they got in the president ial election. But who those voters are, just nobody knows. The trump entrance in the race is really interesting to me because ive been watching the republicans, particularl